Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines Abgleitmechanismus zur Erhöhung der Fahrzeugsicherheit

W. Schimpl, G. Schönberger, A. Eichberger (Magna Steyr Engineering) Vehicle safety is gaining an always more significant role for the marketing of a new vehicle. Consumer tests serve to reproduce realistic accident scenarios. A majority of the accidents bearing a high risk of injury and fatal consequences result from car to car crashes. Particularly, collisions with a small lateral offset (<1/3) lead to high deformations of the passenger survival space and high accelerations effecting the occupants [6]. In these cases, high intrusions are due to a lack of the activation of energy absorbing parts (longitudinal beam,…) and the wheels get stuck. This can result in a collapse of the passenger compartment, particularly, within the footroom of the driver. Such a scenario is not taken into consideration during standard car development. By forming a sliding plane between the vehicles the intrusions and the loads on the occupants can be considerably reduced. Particularly, the velocities changes in driving direction are reduced to a minimum, due to the cars sliding along each other. Solutions to this problem published to date can hardly be integrated into a serial production car. “Active Safety” solutions do exist, but cannot be implemented due to the legal situation and the necessary safety function of pre-crash sensor. The problem can be solved by integrating a mechanical system within the bumper, which is activated by crash-energy (passive system). The requirements of the consumer tests (particularly pedestrian protection and bumper test) are to be kept. Within the scope of a Kplus - research project the competence center "The virtual vehicle" works on the development of such systems in co-operation with MAGNA Steyr Fahrzeugtechnik and the Technical University of Graz.